Usually, an electric drive comprises an electric motor as well as a reduction drive arranged downstream that reduces the rotational movement produced by the electric motor, from faster to slower. The torque is transmitted from the reduction drive to the drive line of the motor vehicle. For this, a differential drive, which is arranged downstream in the torque flow of the reduction drive, splits the introduced torque onto two output shafts for driving the wheels. The two output shafts of the differential drive have a balancing effect on each other, i.e., if one of the two output shafts rotates faster, then the other of the two output shafts rotates correspondingly slower, and vice versa.
From U.S. Pat. No. 7,497,286 B2 an electric drive for driving a motor vehicle is known. The electric drive comprises an electric motor, a planetary drive as a reduction drive and a differential drive, which is arranged downstream of the reduction drive in the torque flow. The planetary drive and the differential drive are arranged coaxially and within the electric motor. The sun gear of the planetary drive is driven by the electric motor. The planet carrier is supported and the ring gear drives the differential carrier of the differential drive.
From DE 20 2005 019 438 U1 a drive unit is known, in which the electric motor is arranged coaxially to the differential drive. A speed reduction is achieved via a gear stage on a countershaft. On the countershaft, a shift drive is provided, which has two gear stages and is shiftable via two switching clutches.
From DE 100 02 133 B4 a hybrid drive for a motor vehicle is known, in which an electric motor and a planetary drive are arranged coaxially to each other. The force transmission onto the axle off-set differential drive is achieved by means of a belt drive via a continuously variable drive as well as a clutch.